2011 BMW 135i M Coupe Review

Joel Helmes reviews the BMW 135i M Coupe.

The 135i is the baby BMW, a two door coupé with two reasonably sized seats in the back.

Being the M Sport version its been tweaked for performance, my test car also had quite an extensive list of additional BMW genuine accessories fitted including racing seats, bigger 18” alloys and carbon fibre body kit.

All together these accessories run to a retail price of $29,000!

But what a car…I mean what a car!

Let’s start in the heart of the beast – under the bonnet. Here you will find a 3.0 litre twin turbo inter-cooled six cylinder petrol engine that delivers a massive 250kW and 500Nm.

That’s impressive enough but you need to remember this vehicle weighs just 1495Kgs.

So as you can imagine that means incredible acceleration and power – zero to 100 in less than 5 seconds.

What’s really impressive however is how well-mannered the BMW 135i M Coupe is when you aren’t utilising all that power.

While it’s a snarling, growling monster in ‘Sport’ mode, switch it to normal and it drives as pleasantly as any BMW.

This is where our performance cars have improved so much in the past decade or so, once upon a time when you bought the sporty model you had to deal with a noisy exhaust, monstrous fuel consumption and all the other inconveniences of choosing the faster model – all the time!

Not any more, come Monday morning when sitting in traffic on the way to work the 135i won’t even turn a head.

The vehicle is fitted with a six speed auto that more than adequately does the job.

And you can expect to use just a combined 8.5 litres per 100, amazing!

As you would expect in a BMW the ride and handling is awesome.

The brakes are incredible.

Inside the cabin everything is understated, typical BMW the controls are simple and functional and everything’s where it should be.

I’m still not however really sold on BMW’s in car navigation and radio controls – I find the system a bit convoluted and unnecessarily complicated.

And being a fairly small coupe you shouldn’t expect and you don’t get a lot of interior storage space, really aside from a couple of door pockets and a rather small glove box that’s about it.

The boot however is surprisingly large.

The exterior styling in one word is perfect.

The BMW 135i M Sport Coupe is also very safe, coming standard with a list of safety features including head and side airbags, traction, stability and braking control, and electronic brake force Distribution.

In summing it up the 1 series M Sport Coupe is a real Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde car, I must admit I spent a lot more time with the monster than the gentleman during my test drive and it was a hell of a lot of fun.

You won’t be disappointed.

The BMW 135i M Sport Coupe starts from just under $100,000.